Tension As NASS Unveils Committee Today

Indications are that there is tension in the National Assembly, as the list of standing committees might be unveiled today.

Naija News reported on Wednesday that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, approved the establishment of 130 Standing Committees to be announced on Thursday.

Along with the 130, the Speaker reportedly established 24 new Standing Committees.

The Nigerian Tribune revealed that the 24 newly created Standing Committees include Aviation Technology, Banking & Other Ancillary Institutions, Digital & Electronic Banking: basic Examination Bodies, Health Specialty Care Services, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control.

Others include Committees on Small and Medium Enterprises, Petroleum (Midstream), Muslim Pilgrimage, Christian Pilgrimage, Police Institutions, Shipping Services, Renewable Energy, National Rural Electrification Agency, Science Research Institutions, Science Engineering, University Education, Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education.

The Speaker, during an interactive session with the German Ambassador to Nigeria, Annett Günther, disclosed that Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen of the 130 Standing Committees will be announced on Thursday before the House proceeds on two months recess.

However, this platform understands that there seems to be tension at the National Assembly (NASS) as some lawmakers have alleged that the Lagos caucus is favoured over others.

Naija News understands that statutory functions of the presiding officers of the Senate and House of Representatives in selecting the leadership and membership of the various committees of the two chambers of NASS were allegedly hijacked by the Presidency, rendering the selection committee raised by the House to pick the leadership and membership of the various committees redundant.

Sources at the NASS told Leadership that the list of presiding officers and membership of the various committees of the two chambers of NASS were delivered through a senate aide yesterday to both Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas for it to be read today.

But some sources at the NASS also told the platform that most lawmakers are angered about how they have been unfairly treated in allocating the leadership of the committees.

It was learnt that Abbas was absent at the plenary yesterday apparently to avoid pressure from his colleagues.

Similarly, the ‘Lagos cabal’ and their cronies in the house were also absent to avoid pressure from their embittered colleagues.

Meanwhile, some aggrieved lawmakers have allegedly formed a dissident group named “Reformation Group.”

A lawmaker from the North East was fingered as the founder and financier of the group.

This platform gathered that the group plans to hire a space at an elitist hotel in Abuja to serve as its secretariat. It has started rallying opposition against the leadership of the two chambers.

It was also gathered that most aggrieved lawmakers are drawn from the South-West and North-Central geopolitical zones.

The lawmakers from the North-Central, according to one of the sources, are still nursing the wounds of the exclusion of the zone from allocation of the six main offices in the Presidency and NASS.

Findings also revealed that some contenders for the office of the Speaker of the House, who stepped down for Abbas ahead of the June 13th election in NASS, have given tacit approval and support to the group.

They were said to be livid that the promises made to them to entice them to backpedal on their aspirations were not fulfilled.

According to one of the group’s promoters, most lawmakers supporting the group are from Southwest.

The source said lawmakers from the South-West were also disenchanted by the dominant roles Lagos State was playing at the detriment of other states in the zone in the scheme of things at the national level.

Lawmakers from the South-West states of Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, and Osun were unhappy that Lagos State was being treated as synonymous with the zone in power-sharing arrangement at the federal level.

According to the source, the South West lawmakers quickly pointed out the report that four of the seven juicy committees allocated to the zone were unilaterally allotted to lawmakers from Lagos State, leaving the remaining three slots to their colleagues from other five states in the belt, considered loyal to the “Lagos cabal.”

It was, however, gathered that the mission of the group would be unveiled during the six-week recess commencing on Friday.